The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to tracking locations of patients, equipment, and staff in a facility.
To track locations of patients, equipment, and staff, a medical facility may employ one of many available location tracking systems. One example of such a system may be a real-time location system (RTLS) which may generate location information in real time. Generally, RTLS-generated location information may be provided in real time using any number of real-time tracking methods, such as tracking the location of radio frequency identification (RFID) or infrared (IR) tags associated with patients, equipment, or staff.
A typical RTLS in a medical facility may associate a tag with an object (e.g., a person, medical equipment, and the like) and determine the location of the object by tracking the location of the tag. For example, a tag may be attached or embedded to an object and may transmit wireless signals. The wireless signals may be received by one or more detectors positioned throughout the medical facility, and the RTLS may determine the location of the tag, and the location of the corresponding object, based on the signal received by the detectors and the known position of the detectors.
Throughout typical operations in the medical facility, the tags may regularly be returned and/or recycled. For example, when a patient is discharged from the medical facility, or when a patient is transported from one wing of a hospital to another, the patient's tag may be returned. Similarly, when medical equipment is moved throughout the medical facility or moved out of the medical facility, a tag associated with the equipment may be returned. Some current techniques involve collecting tags in containers or boxes. An IR transmitter in the collection container may transmit an IR signal to the collected tags, and in response, the tags generate a radio frequency (RF) signal to indicate its return to a collection container. However, such techniques may be inadequate and may result in inaccuracies in distinguishing between returned and circulating tags.